On this day 33 years ago, 3,777 shells fell on Sarajevo. This is a record number of shells that fell on Sarajevo in one day during the siege that lasted from April 5, 1992 to February 29, 1996.
The shells did a lot of damage. People were killed, civil, cultural, religious buildings and even hospitals were demolished.
The siege of Sarajevo began on April 5, 1992, and ended on February 29, 1996. It lasted 1,425 days. It is estimated that around 500,000 missiles were fired at the city during the siege. An average of 329 shells were fired at the city per day.
During that time, around 350,000 inhabitants were exposed to daily fire from members of the former JNA and paramilitary formations, and later members of the then Army of the Republika Srpska, from almost all types of weapons, from positions located on the surrounding hills. They did not manage to descend and occupy the city only thanks to the great will, desire and efforts of the defenders, the majority of citizens who responded to the call for defense, and in the beginning, almost bare-handed, in sneakers and jeans, with minimal weapons, stood up to the defenders of the city.
During the siege, 11,541 citizens of Sarajevo died, including 1,601 children. According to post-war research, most of the inhabitants, almost four fifths of the total number of dead, perished in the first two years of the war.
For terrorizing civilians during the siege of Sarajevo in the period 1992-1995, among others, the Appeals Council of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Courts sentenced the wartime commander of the Republika Srpska Army, Ratko Mladić, and the wartime president of the Republika Srpska, Radovan Karadžić, to life imprisonment.
